AUSTIN, Texas — According to Gov. Greg Abbott’s plan for reopening Texas, the latest phase includes reopening amusement parks, outdoor events, video game facilities and performance halls.
But while venues may be allowed to open, that doesn’t mean you’ll be catching one of their in-person productions any time soon. Most of the performance halls have canceled or postponed their shows.
The Frank Erwin Center postponed its A.R. Rahman performance, saying it hopes to have that date secured soon. It adds that tickets for the June 6 performance will be honored at the rescheduled date.
The Above and Beyond Acoustic performance at Bass Concert Hall has been canceled and refunds were processed.
The Long Center canceled its Beethoven250 festival, and refunds were given.
ZACH Theatre canceled the remainder of its season, moving some of its shows, including "The Sound of Music," to next season.
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Drew Nebrig from ZACH Theatre said it’s not enough time to get a production finished:
“For us, a show takes anywhere from six weeks to a couple of months for us to actually build the sets and the costumes and design everything and rehearse the actors. And so we didn't have the option to, you know, wait to see what the announcement would be and get it up and running in a week or two. So we went ahead and decided, 'You know what? We want to do this the right way. We're going to cancel for the rest of the summer and then we're going to reopen in the fall when we anticipate capacities will be high enough. It'll allow us to do it, and then we'll have plenty of time to come back with a bang, which is what we want to do.”
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Bass Concert Hall is part of Texas Performing Arts.
The executive director, Bob Bursey, released a statement, saying, “We really appreciate the governor’s support and guidance in getting the performing arts back in business. Safely reopening our theaters is a complex process, and we’re working with our university leadership and health experts to plan for it. Communities across Texas need performing arts centers to return to the critical cultural and economic roles they play. We’ll have updates later this month as part of UT’s fall 2020 plans. We’ll be raising the curtain in a safe and healthy way as soon as we can.”
Some theater groups in Austin have organized a way to reach out to theater supporters through a questionnaire. The questionnaire gets information from patrons about their comfort level for returning to the theater, and venues will use the answers in their reopening process.
You can find the questionnaire here.
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